Sam Family History

English: from a pet form of the Middle English personal name Samson. Native American (e.g. Navajo): adoption of the English personal name Sam (short form of Samuel rarely of Samson) as a surname.

Cambodian: written សម corresponding to the Khmer word meaning ‘alike similar’ and to the homonym meaning e.g. ‘attractive’. Alternatively it may be a surname of Chinese origin (compare below).

Cambodian: written សំ (also សាំ) probably of Chinese or Vietnamese origin (compare below). Vietnamese (Sầm): from the Chinese surname 岑 see Cen. It is also found among the Cham people in southern Vietnam.

Chinese: Cantonese form of the surname 沈 see Shen 7: Chinese: Cantonese form of the surname 岑 see Cen.8: Chinese: Cantonese form of the surname 諶 see Chen 9: Chinese: variant Romanization of the surname 孫 see Sun 10: Chinese: possibly from a Cantonese form of the Chinese names 森 (meaning ‘forest’) or 琛 (meaning ‘treasure’) which are both monosyllabic personal names in Chinese.

Alternatively it may be part of any of several Chinese disyllabic personal names borne by Chinese immigrants in the US.1 West African (Ghana): Akan (Fante) name of unexplained etymology.